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The ICT & Ageing – Users, Markets and Technologies study is funded by the European Commission. The primary aim is to identify existing market barriers that hinder uptake of technologies for independent living and identify recommendations for action in order to address older peoples’ needs and market potentials. More specifically, three different strands of work are pursued in the framework of the overall study:

• A core strand of work focuses on analysing the ‘ICT and Ageing’ market situation across 14 selected Member States and two key comparison countries outside the EU (USA and Japan). In terms of tangible outcomes this work will yield an overview of market barriers for relevant ICT based products / services including national reimbursement practices as well as a state-of-the-art picture in pre-competitive and innovative public procurement in the field under investigation. Moreover, good practice examples will be collated for different ICT application domains. Information collated throughout the research process and synthesised analyses will be made available through an online-knowledge base. On the basis of the analyses undertaken, policy recommendations will be developed on the possible mitigation of identified market barriers.
• Another core strand of work focuses on analysing ethical issues associated with ICT based solutions that are relevant to independent living of older people. In terms of tangible outputs an overview of relevant issues will be generated with a view to providing guidance for the development of relevant policies. Again, good practice examples will be identified and made available through the online knowledge base.
• Finally, the study provides support to the clustering of ongoing RTD projects funded under relevant European framework programmes as far as these address ICT and Ageing matters. This includes the setting up and maintenance of an online platform enabling interaction of relevant projects as well as annual clustering workshops.

Please see the ICT and Ageing Project Homepage for more information.